INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS; Bertelsmann Plans Inquiry On Its Role During Nazi Era

By DINITIA SMITH

Published: December 16, 1998

Bertelsmann A.G., the German conglomerate that owns Random House and is a partner with Barnes & Noble in its Internet bookstore, is appointing a committee of scholars to investigate its activities during the Nazi era.

Thomas Middelhoff, Bertelsmann's chairman, said the decision was in response to a recent article in the Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche, which contended that Bertelsmann had misled the public about its activities during the Hitler regime and that it had also published pro-Nazi books in the 1930's and 40's. The accusations are also in the current issue of The Nation in an article by Hersch Fischler, a German sociologist and researcher who wrote the article for the Swiss magazine, and John Friedman, a journalist and documentary film maker.

After the Swiss article was published, Bertelsmann also withdrew its corporate history from its Web site for evaluation.

Bertelsmann has said it had opposed the Nazis, who closed the company in 1943. Last summer, Mr. Middelhoff said in a speech, ''I am very fortunate that I work for a company that has always taken a stand for racial and religious freedom.''

Mr. Middelhoff said in a phone interview yesterday that he had believed that the company's official history, which was published in 1985, was accurate. ''But when somebody like Fischler says, 'Listen I have another understanding,' then there is a question. Do we reject that or handle it in an open-minded way?''

He said that the panel investigating the company's past would include three historians, including an American and one with ''a Jewish background.'' There would also be a second panel that would insure the independence of the historians' work. All findings will be published without any additions and without company censorship, Mr. Middelhoff said.

The Nation article said that Bertelsmann was the biggest supplier of propaganda books to Hitler's army and the SS. Among its pro-Nazi books, according to the article, was ''Dr. Martin Luther's Little Catechism for the Man in Brown,'' intended for Nazi Brownshirts.

Mr. Middelhoff, speaking from the company's headquarters in Gutersloh, said Bertelsmann had published the titles listed by The Nation. ''We have about 10 or 15 abhorrent books,'' Mr. Middelhoff said. ''I can't read them because there is such an awful content. We believe about three were banned,'' meaning that after publication the Nazis deemed them not sympathetic enough despite their sentiments. One ''banned'' book was ''Dr. Martin Luther's Little Catechism for the Man in Brown.''

The Nation article also reported that Heinrich Mohn, Bertelsmann's chief executive at the time, was a ''passive'' member of the SS, meaning one who paid dues but did not participate in all its activities. Mr. Middelhoff agreed that Mohn had been a passive member but added, ''I believe that wasn't unusual for that time in Germany.'' Still, he said, that ''is not an excuse.''

He also said, ''There was no question that Bertelsmann was closed by the Nazis and three managers were jailed.'' But he said he did not know whether all the company's divisions had been closed.